Construction of towers for support of various items has been practiced for many years. Various towers of various materials have been provided to support electrical transmission lines including wooden, steel, and, more recently, concrete. In like manner, wind driven apparatus including windmills and wind-driven power generators in various forms and designed for many purposes, including pumping of water from wells as well as, more recently, generation of electrical power, have also been developed.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,793,794 to Archer et al. entitled “Stacked Column” is directed to a column comprised of a plurality of concrete-filled stacked tubes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,406,094 to Hempel et al. entitled “Apparatus for Anchoring Self-supporting, Tall Structures” is directed to an anchoring self-supporting tall structure such as masts, towers, or the like in a foundation. The mast or tower may be used to support a wind-driven power generator.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,761,875 to Oliphant et al. entitled “Reinforced concrete Pole with Attachment Mechanism” is directed to an attachment mechanism which provides a structurally sound means to attach a reinforced concrete pole to a support structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,532,700 to Maliszewski et al. entitled “Flange With Cut For Wind Tower” is directed to a flange for making a tower for a wind generator made up of a plurality of cylindrical steel segments.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,155,875 to Henderson entitled “Method of Forming a Perimeter Weighted Foundation For Wind Turbines And The Like” is directed to a weighted foundation having a central pier pedestal and an enlarged base space outwardly and extending below the pedestal.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,586,417 to Henderson, et al. entitled “Tensionless pier foundation” is directed to a hollow, cylindrical pier foundation is constructed of cementitious material poured in situ between inner and outer cylindrical corrugated metal pipe shells.
The disclosures of all the patents referenced herein are incorporated by reference, for all purposes.
In an article entitled “Precast concrete elements for wind power industry,” German company Enercon GmbH has described methodology for casting concrete. Mexican company Postensa Wind Structures describes on its website www.postensaws.com a tilt up, precast on-site construction system for concrete towers for use with wind driven power generators.
While various implementations of tower constructions have been developed, and while various combinations of materials have been employed for tower construction, no design has emerged that generally encompasses all of the desired characteristics as hereafter presented in accordance with the subject technology.